Lift Up Your Hearts
Lift Up Your Hearts
2 Thessalonians 1
There is all the wisdom of the wise leader in this opening passage. It seems that the Thessalonians had sent a message to Paul full of self-doubtings. They had been timorously afraid that their faith was not going to stand the test and that - in the expressive modern phrase - they were not going to make the grade. Paul's answer was not going to push them further into the slough of despond by pessimistically agreeing with them but to pick out their virtues and achievements in such a way that these despondent, frightened Christians might square their shoulders and say, "Well, if Paul thinks that of us we'll make a fight of it yet."
"Blessed are those," said Mark Rutherford, "who heal us of our self-despisings," and Paul did just that for the Thessalonian Church. He knew that often judicious praise can do what indiscriminate criticism cannot do and that wise praise never makes a man rest upon his laurels but fills him with the desire to do better.
There are three things which Paul picked out as being the marks of a vital Church.
First, a faith that is strong. It is the mark of the advancing Christian that he grows surer of Jesus Christ every day. The faith which may begin as an hypothesis ends as a certainty. James Agate once said, "My mind is not like a bed which has been made and remade. There are some things of which I am absolutely sure." The Christian comes to that stage when to the thrill of Christian experience he adds the discipline of Christian thought.
Second , there is a love that is increasing. A growing Church is one which grows greater in service. A man may begin serving his fellow man as a duty which his Christian faith lays upon him; he will end by doing it because in it he finds his greatest joy. The life of service opens up the great discovery that unselfishness and happiness go hand in hand.
Third, there is a constancy that endures. The word Paul uses is a magnificent word. It is hupomone which is usually translated endurance but does not mean the ability passively to bear anything that may descend upon us. It has been described as a "masculine constancy under trial" and describes the spirit which not only endures the circum-stances in which it finds itself but masters them. It accepts the blows of life but in accepting them transforms them into stepping stones to new achievement.
Paul's uplifting message ends with the most uplifting vision of all. It ends with what we might call the reciprocal glory. When Christ comes he will be glorified in his saints and admired in those who have believed. Here we have the breath-taking truth that our glory is Christ and Christ's glory is ourselves. The glory of Christ is in those who through him have learned to endure and to conquer, and so to shine like lights in a dark place. A teacher'/s glory lies in the scholars he produces; a parent's in the children he rears not only for living but for life; a master's in his disciples; and to us is given the tremendous privilege and responsibility that Christ's glory can lie in us. We may bring discredit or we may bring glory to the Master whose we are and whom we seek to serve. Can any privilege or responsibility be greater than that?
In His Service,
Terry Phillips
